General Project Thread & Feedback

To be honest, I do feel rather guilty I haven't submitted more to the project (in the form of actual artwork). It's motivation that's the big problem for me. MDM and test-object do a great job, and I don't like to just sit back and watch. But I do anyway... I go through phases though, when I'm more motivated than usual. You know what though? It's usually the artwork that isn't quite up to scratch rather than the artwork that is, that inspires me to work the most :P.

I know it's not up for discussion, but I was also more comfortable when there wasn't so much restriction on what we could work on. The current available assets are mostly things that I look at and either think "I couldn't possibly do a good job of that", or "I don't want to work on that" (not compelled - doesn't inspire me). Whereas when it was all open, I'd just look through it all and say... hey! That chicken looks like fun (well that's not quite how it worked out in that case but still)! I know most newcomers would feel more comfortable working on something obscure than something important.

Just saying that may be another thing that scares off potential contributors.

Those video tutorials don't seem to be on YouTube. Any reason not to put them up there (along with a link to the forum)?

Anyway, I've been thinking about the catapult. If I can get around to starting it, I should be able to get around to finishing it (a concept, as per usual).

 

Honestly though there's nothing stopping people from working on stuff that isn't on the important list. Hell if anything when we get to that particular zone/area of the game, it'll make the process go by faster because we already have people with near finished ideas.

It's just they won't be getting the strict criticism that comes with being able to post your art in the zone thread, and they wouldn't be able to post it.... well anywhere really. Not until they decide to shift focus to the zone they worked on.

But really, what's stopping you from making a complete HD version of Oil Ocean Zone or something. If you aren't going to contribute to the current objective, it's not going to hurt the project if you work on something else that WILL be required eventually.

 

I suppose there's nothing stopping us as long as we don't go posting it up on the forums, and as long as we don't expect any support along the way . Good point actually.

 

Surely a lot of the stuff in Photoshop can be done in GIMP, can't it? Although I have used both in the past (but I don't have Photoshop any more), there's not much advanced stuff I've actually done in GIMP; I mean, I've only very recently realised that Quickmask actually exists in GIMP, which I didn't know before hand.

So for me, a GIMP tutorial would be most helpful (although I'm still a sucker for actually doing artwork - as you've most likely noticed, I'm a 'back-seat artist' if you will, lol.)

 

I've been spending most of my time in Ubuntu since starting to learn Ruby. That's one of the reasons I've found it so hard to get any artwork done - I either have to open up a VirtualBox, or boot into Windows (can't be bothered with wine right now). I can't stand GIMP. I'll wait for 2.8 with it's single window mode and give it another go then. But Inkscape on the other hand (which is probably more relevant to the project anyway) is turning out quite nicely. Now that I've given myself a chance to learn the basics (the very very basics - playing around with the catapult), it's actually not a bad alternative to Illustrator (just going by what little I've done so far).

So I'd love to see some kind of Inkscape tutorial/s. Heck, maybe even I could do one. Although that might be a little difficult considering I've only just started with it today. Looks like it will be quite easy to get the hang of though.

 

I'll think about creating a topic where non-goal concepts and artwork can be made on. If I go ahead and do that, it'll be with the expressed knowledge that pieces being discussed in it aren't part of the current focus, so the staff won't be handing out feedback for them until they are set as goals. In my mind it seems like an art-based playground of sorts, so I leave it to you guys to sell me on it if it's something you want. And I mean more than just a couple sentence posts by two people. Much more. I'll be very irritated if I make a topic for that and the goal topics all go silent.

 

That makes perfect sense to me. I'm not sure what else I can say though... Activity should be a good thing, I would hope something like that would make people more inclined to get involved, but then it's impossible to tell how it will turn out. I suppose as long as most of the people who have been around here awhile can stick mainly to the official goals, then it could be a way for new artists to sort of "test the waters" without having to get into anything too serious straight away. But who knows. The only real way to be sure is to try it. Hmm I'm half trying to convince myself now...

Then of course, it would probably work best if the harsh criticism was kept to a minimum in a thread like that. At the same time, you don't want to let people waste their time if they're obviously on the wrong track...

I'd just like to know what other people think of it. It's weird, suddenly I'm not totally sure about it :S. I'd love to see it work, but I'd hate to see it fall flat...

 

This isn't for the people who are already focusing on specific zone art though, this is for the people who WEREN'T going to contribute in the first place because of the strictness of the zone threads. It gives them a chance to work on something they think they could handle but isn't exactly the group's main focus.

The ones who decided they want to work on Hill Top Zone (or whatever the goal will be) artwork can still work in the zone thread, everyone else can join the general thread UNTIL their zone comes into focus, THEN they can move over to the specific thread.

You're not LOSING any workers, you're gaining the ones who were too afraid to join.

Edit: I'm a terrible artist. Looking at my sig proves that. But if there was a thread of just artwork that wasn't for any particular zone (but still pertaining to A zone, since there already is a nonzone art thread), I wouldn't mind throwing in a bit of concept art or two just to illustrate an idea.

 

So you're telling me all of this has been discussed before, and no one actually did anything about it.

Sonic2HD, Out in 2050.

 

I have an idea, how about a cutoff date system where if someone releases artwork for a new sprite that doesn't suck and nobody else makes a new revision in a week, then that person is the only one who can commit updates to the piece except for staff members. It'd end the "It doesn't match the original pixels OMG" problem as well as the "we don't think its perfect but we can't find anyone else to make it perfect" problem either.

 

People have disappeared before with seemingly no intention of finishing their work, and that rules out any possibility of a better version coming along during the process. Which if you look back at the old threads, has happened 90% of the time (even if the original was quite good itself). I prefer it if it's totally open, anyone can work on any of the pieces, regardless of they're already being worked on at the time. Of course - within reason. If someone's obviously close to finishing, then unless you've got something pretty special, it would be bad timing to bring out something new.

 

Here's an idea I rarely see:

People don't release the source files for their work here. They should, in case they give up or so the staff can revise them.

 

I really want to contribute to the project, but to do so, I just need to know what's wrong with the current artworks such as the catapult or the vine platform. They look good to me. I really want to be able to see a "progress bar" of some abstract sort so that I know what there is to work on. What I'm picturing is an up-to-date page with artworks where each artwork has an exact list of what needs to be changed with it. and if it is good, then why isn't it on inker? it's like everything's making progress, but nobody's recognizing it...

also, just to attempt at providing some possibly useful artwork as a base I've been working on the HTZ boss in Maya. if you don't like it, just tell me so. but if you say "how can you work with that to make it better?" and then don't even plan to use it, I'm not even going to try to adjust it to this project's guidelines (vectorize it). here's a rendered version of it again, sorry if I'm being a little forward.

on a separate note, I have experience with Inkscape & GIMP and if permitted, I would be glad to post a Inkscape/GIMP version of the already existing tutorials.

also, should any Java / C# programmers are possibly needed, juuuus lemme know.

 

Vector Art is Required for characters - items - badniks - foreground tiles. Raster Art is instead required for Backgrounds.

The artwork I do, though I could blow up my base renders to as large as I want since Maya is a vector program, are output as raster images. And I've gotten into the habit of working on them at their correct 4X size.

The art style for characters, badniks, objects and level tiles is remastered 2d (rather than 3d).

So with that, my art violates 2 rules. It is invalid for contribution that will appear in the game.

 

No, it isn't. This rule hasn't been around since the tech demo. Most of the stuff I've made has been in photoshop or been made with a combination of illustrator and photoshop. Granted I like to use photoshop's vector tools, but it's still a raster output.

 

No offense taken.
My vector art can't match my maya art. Simple as that.
I'd rather not remind you, but my first submission was completely ridiculed (and I suppose rightly so). But it was done complete in illustrator.
After that I stepped down from submitting because I threw what I had out there and was beaten up so I just went to critiquing stuff for a while.

And then I didn't like the way certain objects were interpreted art-wise that I thought were obviously made in a 3D program originally so I just went with that. I think it was originally test-object's Chemical Plant rotating floor panel.

I'm no pro at maya either. There is so much crap to learn that I doubt I will be a pro at it in my lifetime. Its all about just doing what you know and branching out to try new tools every so often to discover new things.

But I personally never found a reason to learn illustrator to make the art I wanted to make. And that is the only reason I never pursued learning it besides the basics. I have a much easier time with making vector art in Flash. Maybe I'd be more interested in giving it another shot if I had an art tablet.

Well its obviously that rule has still been around since the tech demo since I took it directly from the stickied Rules & Guidlelines topic.
The second bullet says:

 

I'll have to get that changed then.